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About Me

I'm just your basic, all-American girl from Denver, Colorado, except for now, I live half way around the world in Japan.: ) I met my husband in university in Denver. College sweethearts. We have been happily married since 1997. And have been together for way longer, about 16 years total. He's originally from Osaka, Japan. We lived for a couple of years in Honolulu Hawaii, where our beautiful first born son, Branden was born. We were sent there by the company my husband works for. He works for an airline by the way. After living in Honolulu, my husband's employer, wanted us to move to Japan. We live in Chiba, Japan. Where we just built our dream home, an import "all American" house! Which means a big GE oven, big GE dishwasher and yes, central heating and central air conditioning, yay! We also have a beautiful second son, named Noah. Since my husband works for an airline like I said, we travel a lot and I really do appreciate the flight benefits. Other then that, I just love spending time with my family and friends and enjoy back yard BBQ's.

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Branden's Junior High School graduation...

Last Thursday, March 9th Branden graduated Junior High School. He took his final walk into the gymnasium one last time. The 9th graders were split in 2 classes. There were 58 ninth graders total for both classes. But the 58 were divided in half all 3 years. Class A and class B. Branden was in class A and the teacher for class A... stood beautifully in her Kimono as her class A students filed into the gymnasium one final time. Music was playing. And every parent in the room was video taping and taking pictures. I took video and also snapped pictures in between.

Then walked in class B after class A walked in first and their teacher stood as his class filed in one last time too. And then they waited for their name to be called. Before walking onto the stage. My American sized son, next to his classmate from class A.

Beautiful colorful flowers and a bonsai tree. He stood here until they called out his name one final time and he shouted proudly...hai! And then went and collected his diploma! I did not shed 1 tear. I was not sad. I was simply enjoying watching my great big tall beautiful son! Graduate with his class! I was so happy for him and oh...so proud! My heart was simply bursting!

These 4 were the very best of friends. Always together. Always talking. Always hanging out at each others houses. Always joking with one another. Growing up together since they were wee little... pika pika ichinensei, these 4! And now they're great big 9th graders. They will never again attend the same school together. These 4 are going to 4 different schools. Kento-kun was as you can tell was crying. And I could feel and understand why. This was their final day together. Final day together as classmates. The class A kids were asked to each get up in front of the class A kids and parents and their teacher and say any parting words, this was done privately in their classroom, which I video taped. Branden said, he hopes to see everyone on Adult Day/Coming of Age Day when they're all age 20. And he kept his speech short and sweet. But so many were really feeling their hearts that day and were in tears. And it was at that point that I almost burst out in tears myself. But...I held it together. And deeply breathed in and out. Yes...I could totally understand why some were crying. And it was such a wonderful day. But also such a bittersweet day too. Best friends forever and ever!!! : )

Branden's sensei. She was the best teacher Branden has ever *ever* had! I liked her so much because she was an exchange student in Los Angeles California back in her day. And to me that matters so much because...if you have lived in another country or culture not your own. Your mind expands and you learn that the way you grew up...is perhaps not the way the rest of the world does things. Believe me...I learned that too... with living in Japan. And so...this gave his sensei such an open mind...and open outlook on life... especially when being a teacher to Branden. She also speaks wonderful amazing English. And she was just a wonderfully open minded teacher. Wonderful kind person. And she never made my son feel like a weirdo for speaking English at home. She never made my son feel like a strange-o for being half Japanese and half American. Granted she gave him no special treatment either... and that's the way we prefer it! But...she *always* had an open mind with him And a kind heart with Branden and the rest of her class too. So...yes...we adored this teacher for the 2 years she was Branden's teacher. Best teacher ever! We love you sensei!!! I hope you will be Noah's teacher when the time comes! : )

After graduation ended around 12:30pm considering we all snapped a ton of pics outside. We went home and we had lunch here at home. And we waited for Noah to get out of school. As soon as Noah was out of school, and he came home and dropped off his randoseru and stuff. We all went out to dinner. We went to Jolly Pasta, the place Branden picked. And we ordered pizza and pasta and we had a drink bar. And we just enjoyed about 75 minutes of eating and talking and laughing. It was such a good graduation you guys... and delicious graduation dinner too. : )

We even drizzled some of that amazing chili oil over our pizza and pasta. And just...enjoyed our time together. It was a nice quiet little celebration just us 4. Anyway...Branden now has zero school until high school entrance ceremony in April. Onwards and upwards. : )

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About the Blog

This blog was started for everybody I care about and love back home, it sorta helps my family and friends feel more connected to me and my life. It's also a place to make new friendships, support one another, laugh our butts off at times, and just be kind to one another and hang out! So please join me, while I try living my life in Japan, all the good, the bad and yes even the embarrassing blunders that I will probably be making along the way! : )